NPR Story

2:14 pm

Thu November 28, 2013

Leonard Bernstein's Letters

Leonard Berstein seated at a piano in this 1955 photograph. (Library of Congress via Wikimedia)

Leonard Bernstein is widely considered one of the great American composers and conductors. He was the longtime music director of the New York Philharmonic, and he composed the music for “West Side Story” and other musicals, in addition to serious works of contemporary American classical music.

In his life, Bernstein encountered other cultural luminaries and maintained healthy correspondences with them. A new collection, “The Leonard Bernstein Letters,” includes hundreds of letters from Bernstein’s six decades of correspondence.

Nigel Simeone edited the volume and he joins Here & Now‘s Meghna Chakrabarti to discuss Bernstein — both the musician and the man.

Guest

Nigel Simeone, editor of “The Leonard Bernstein Letters” and author of “Leonard Bernstein: West Side Story.”